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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157121">The Story of Kieran and Nox</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueseelie/pseuds/Blueseelie'>Blueseelie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dungeons &amp; Dragons (Roleplaying Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Acrobatics, Backstory, Bard - Freeform, Brother and Sister act, Brother-Sister Relationships, Definitely NOT incest, M/M, Not Incest, Prostitution, Ranger - Freeform, Stripper, Twins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:49:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,831</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157121</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueseelie/pseuds/Blueseelie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Half-elf twins, Kieran and Nox, travel from town to town making money the only way they know how. Abandoned as kids, these two grew up relying on each other, never trusting anyone else.</p><p>These two characters were from a campaign I played with friends. I played Kieran while someone else played Nox which was super fun. This is the backstory I wrote leading up to their dramatic introduction to the rest of the party.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Story of Kieran and Nox</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The crowd went wild. Kieran ended his spectacular performance with a flamboyant flourish. He eyed Nox, making her move while her mark sat dumbfounded in a back row. He was so charmed, he couldn’t feel his pouch fall off the back of his seat and into her hands as she passed by. She didn’t look at Kieran but he could tell it was a heavy bag; they had scored. The curtains closed as Kieran stepped back in the dim of backstage. He didn’t bother changing out of his costume, an open-backed vest and shined leather shorts.<br/>
A tap on his shoulder.</p><p>“Um hi, Kieran, was it? I just wanted to say, your act was… absolutely fantastic.” A nervous elf shifted feet in front of him, waiting for a response. He wasn’t particularly good looking, but </p><p>Kieran noticed the man’s gold bangles and lush purple tunic. Expensive clothes. Kieran saw Nox slip out of the shadows. He cast message. <i>Look good enough to you? </i></p><p>Nox gave the fan a quick look. Her voice whispered back. <i>It’s your call but I say go for it.</i> Kieran felt a grin spread across his face and turned his undivided attention to the man standing in front of him.</p><p>“Why thank you, love. I’ve a couple more tricks for you if you’ve got a private venue…”</p><p>An hour later and Kieran’s new friend was passed out on the silky sheets of his bed, both of them wearing nothing but what they were born in. A shadow swept over the bed. Kieran rolled over to face the window where Nox was sitting on the balcony in front of the window that Kieran had left cracked open.</p><p>“Put some fucking clothes on and grab his keys, brother dear” she hissed, grimacing.</p><p>“Gladly, dear sister.” Kieran smiled as he slipped out of bed and into his pants. </p><p>They made off like bandits before anyone woke up.</p><p>Kieran’s vision of their Magnificent Mansion tonight closely resembled the room of the man they’d just stolen from. Nox scoffed as she stepped through the magical portal Kieran has raised out of thin air.</p><p>“Really brother?” She didn’t even give him the satisfaction of looking around at his creation and went to work unbuckling the straps of her leather armor.</p><p>Kieran threw himself onto a lavish sofa, smiling wickedly at his sister. </p><p>“What can I say, the man had a lovely home and I wasn’t quite ready to leave his wonderfully comfortable bed when you came sulking in. It’s a shame other parts of my night can’t be magically remade…” Kieran rolled around on the couch until his head and shoulders leaned over the edge and his hair brushed the floor. In one fluid motion, his legs went up into the air and his entire body bent until his feet landed on the ground, he did a small pivot and bowed towards Nox. </p><p>She rolled her eyes and shucked off the last of her armor onto a heap on the floor where an unseen servant carried it over to a table and neatly arranged it for the next morning. Nox knew that Kieran would be too excited after a successful night to leave her alone and go to sleep but unlike him, she was actually tired.<br/>
Before she could make it to one of the rooms, Kieran had pounced on her, locking his arms over her shoulders and around her neck.</p><p>“Let’s go out again, find another idiot to rob! Come on sister,” Kieran whined next to her ear. Fluidly, Nox grabbed his arm and vaulted him over her shoulder to the ground. Kieran twisted mid-air and landed like a cat below her. He smiled again.</p><p>“Please?” He looked up at her with the same grin that could charm crowds but Nox looked at him coldly.</p><p>“You may be raring to go again, you horny bastard, but try getting past two estates worth of private guards in one night. I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed, good night brother.” And with that, Nox stepped over him and opened the door to her room, the first door on the right. That was always her room, no matter what style or decor her brother fancied that day. He always made sure her room was somewhere she could find it. She opened the door to a faceful of fresh air. Somehow in these pocket dimensions, there were always large windows left wide open for her. You couldn’t see anything out of them, just a midnight blue haze, but there was a light breeze that came through. Almost created the feeling of being outside. She fell onto the bed and sank into it. Damn, these beds are incredibly comfortable.</p><p>--</p><p>Nox woke up with her cheek against the wet stone of an alley, the same alley Kieran had summoned the mansion door in. Nox saw her gear unceremoniously in a heap next to her. She sat up and quickly started to pull her boots on. The mansion would only deteriorate if 24 hours had passed or if Kieran had ended the spell. And since it was still dark and Kieran was gone, she could only assume something had happened to him. That idiot. </p><p>All her armor strapped on, Nox leapt up. She reached into the pouch by her side, anxiously rooting through it until she fingered a small diamond studded ring, a memento from a long ago plunder where they had gone after a rich married couple honeymooning. They had scored a pair of rings from that job, Kieran taking one to add to his collection of shiny ornaments, Nox pocketing the other to get appraised by a broker and see how much money it was worth. The rings turned out to be enchanted, drawing one towards the other with a specific spell. A heartfelt gift to a newly married couple, but infinitely more useful to someone with a brother as easy to distract as Kieran.</p><p>She had figured it might be advantageous for her to hold onto hers, in case of a situation just like this one. Nox crept through the streets, following the gentle pull of the ring. The town was quiet and dark and Nox blended in perfectly, stalking lightly over the shadowed cobblestones.</p><p>Eventually, the ring brought her to the edge of town, where sprawling estates were separated by lush gardens and lawns. Nox crept through the hedges avoiding pratols of private security. She found the house where the ring pulled so strongly on her finger it started to hurt. She took it off and pocketed it again, deactivating the enchantment as it was removed.<br/>
The house she found herself in front displayed the same expensive statues and topiary as its neighbors. In the dark, Nox couldn’t tell if the bush she was hidden behind was meant to resemble a gryphon or a goldfish. </p><p>Unlike her brother, Nox lacked an obsession with the extravagant and expensive tastes of the upper class. What good were topiaries when you didn’t have money for food. But then again, the two of them both had different ways of confronting their cruel childhood. </p><p>The two were half-elves, born from the irresponsible relations of a human man and the elf who gave birth to them. They were immediately discarded, surviving their early years on the generosity of churches and kind farmers, later by relying on each other and the skills they soon acquired. Both children grew up, either from malnourishment or their heritage, small and limber. For Nox that translated to stealthily stalking the streets and a menacing quickness with a knife. Inspired by decorated travelling performers they never had the money to see perform, Kieran became a performer himself but in ways that better suited their needs. There were always enough perverts willing to pay to see Kieran dance and then drunk enough afterward to get their purses stolen by Nox. Gradually their schemes evolved but their relationship stayed much the same as it was when they were children. Their contempt for the world they lived in only grew.</p><p>They were both partially fueled by their spite for the people above them. Her brother made them illusions of mansions to live in, stole their costumes and clothing, and defiled their sons and daughters all to prove that he could be just like them and yet have come from nothing. All he wanted to show them his cheap mockery of their pointless wealth and extravagance. At least that’s what he told her, but Nox assumed he was starting to enjoy living the comforts of their life. But Nox directed her anger towards more productive goals, towards ensuring her and her brother’s survival, mainly by making sure they had wealthy targets and making sure those targets were relieved of everything they owned. Occasionally survival meant leaping in to save Kieran from a jealous lover or a feral owlbear. She would prove that they would survive and prosper despite only having each other.</p><p>Nox peeked out from behind the gryphon-fish hedge. A two-man patrol of guards strolled towards her. Easy enough to dispatch. Nox notched her bow as they passed her and shot a silent arrow into the back of one of them. As he fell, she was already leaping out of the bush towards the second, dagger sinking into the side of his throat, quieting his shout. Leaving them, she ran up to the side of the house and scaled the brick, digging her calloused fingers into the crevices of the crumbling brickwork and pulling herself onto a balcony above.<br/>
She found herself in a dark empty bedroom, bed made and with a simple white robe laid out neatly with a pair of woven sandals arranged on the floor. Hearing voices in the corridor outside, Nox threw on the floor-length robe, hiding her bow and armor underneath. She opened the door to find a pair of men, wearing the same white robes but hemmed at the cuffs with red stains.</p><p>“Ah, dear Sister! You’ve awoken from your chambers just in time! It is time to reveal the sinner we have chosen for our beloved goddess. Come, all must be present!” Before Nox could come up with a reasonable excuse, the two men had stepped to either side of her, taken her hands, and begun guiding her down the hall.</p><p>That fucking idiot, getting caught by some cultist freaks, she thought as she let the men lead her towards where her fool of a brother was being kept.</p><p>They turned a corner and entered a large ballroom, the floor covered in kneeling white-robed acolytes. A path through bodies was left clear leading towards the center of the room where Kieran was tied to a post. His hands were tied together and hung above his head by a hook secured to the bare wooden post and his mouth was gagged. They had, somewhat unnecessarily, wrapped her brother in rope at his feet and knees as well, leaving him barely able to shift his weight on the hook with his dangling feet secured to an iron loop on the floor. A second empty post stood next to him.</p><p>These people knew who he was, Nox realized, staring at her completely immobilized and silent brother. They knew he had magic and they knew how to ensure he couldn’t use it. And if they knew Kieran, they knew her. She tried to take a step towards him but the men at her sides gripped her hands painfully hard. Their other hands grabbed her upper arms and their gentle guiding became forceful. They looked straight ahead towards the center of the room and dragged a struggling Nox up onto the stand. Nox pulled but their firm grip held her arms still and her kicking feet were soon bound.</p><p>In moments she was hanging next to her brother, only she had been left ungagged. As a preacher began to speak to the assembly in front of them, Nox whispered to her brother.</p><p>“Kieran, I can’t get my hands free. Can you slip out?” Kieran looked at her and slowly shook his head.</p><p>“Fuck…”</p><p>“... And with the sacrifice of these two sinners, one who would steal from us and one who would lay with his betters, Waukeen will ensure our continued prosperity. Our Golden Lady will bless us with what belongs to us as we return these sinners to the pit, to the dirt that they belong to.” With that, the preacher turned to face Nox and Kieran and began to mutter an incantation. A bright light appeared behind them and wind began to blow on the back of Nox’s ears. She twisted herself to see the mirror-like portal that had been created in the space behind their posts. The congregation began to stand and walk towards them, muttering their prayers as their many hands lifted the siblings up off of their hooks and through the portal. </p><p>The sudden daylight blinded Nox. She couldn’t see where the portal had taken them with the crowd of cloaked members holding and surrounding her, nor could she see her brother, but she could feel a breeze and she was pretty sure the grunts of a struggle belonged to Kieran.</p><p>Nox had stopped struggling and relaxed into the hands of her captors. They had trapped her with her brother as bait. She assumed they had left that balcony door open for her and left her a disguise that she thought would conceal it, lure her into a false sense of security. They had known who the two were and planned everything out. No doubt the rich kid they had hit earlier that night was a part of this too, he was probably what had drawn Kieran out of the mansion earlier that night. They had lost.</p><p>Nox was laid down on a rocky ground next to her brother as the group formed a semi-circle around them. Above her head, Nox could see the edge of a cliff looking out above a dense forest. She shifted to look at Kieran who was failing to face death as stoically as her. She couldn’t blame him. The cult, busy with their chanting and praying, didn’t stop her as she wriggled over to Kieran to lay beside him. Her bound hands reached out to touch his face and he looked at her, his watery eyeliner dripping across his face.</p><p>“I love you, dear brother. I will always love you. Thank you for always taking care of me.” Kieran's mouth gagged, he bent his head forward to hers and as their foreheads connected, she could tell he thought the same. They laid there together as the group around them concluded their ceremony.</p><p>“... here overlooking the endless natural bounty that Waukeen gifts to us, the forests and mines on which we sustain our prosperity, we give back to her, give her the sinners who have tried to disrupt the societal structure the Golden Lady has constructed and we have worked to maintain. Waukeen, our Golden Lady, The Merchant’s Friends, the…”</p><p>“Hey there, what’s goin’ on o’er here?”</p><p>Nox could see the crowd shift to look behind them at the accented intruder who was out of view from her position on the ground.</p><p>“You folks weren’t plannin’ to harm these folks, were you? I don’t know what god y’all are servin’, but mine ain’t going to allow these innocent folk to be harmed. So please, if y’all could just disperse and let me help these nice people you got tied up there, I would really appreciate it.” A moment of silence followed his announcement, succeeded by the yells of fighting. </p><p>Nox couldn’t see much, but it looked like the entire cult was attacking the lone stranger. </p><p>With the distraction of the fighting, no one noticed the short-haired elf girl and human boy who knelt down and began to undo their restraints.</p><p>“Noticed you might need some help, then perhaps you might be inclined to help our friend over there who decided he had to save your butts,” the elf said, working on Nox’s hands. As soon as they were free, her hands were on her bow and she had an arrow notched within seconds.</p><p>“We appreciate the help,” Nox said over her shoulder, keeping her eyes trained on fighting in front of them. “Now if you could finish untying my brother.”</p><p>The human finished on Kieran’s ropes and removed his gag. Kieran's face looked nothing like the wreck it had been minutes ago, except for the runny makeup awkwardly drying on his face. He effortlessly flashed his most charming for his rescuers and took his place standing behind Nox, a jeweled dagger appearing in his hand. He leaned over her shoulder without obstructing Nox’s view of the battlefield.</p><p>“After you, dear sister,” he said quietly next to her ear. Nox smiled in response and could feel her brother's magical inspiration on her skin, tightening the bowstring and sharpening her gaze.</p><p>“Naturally, dear brother,” she said before letting her arrow fly.</p>
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